TIM PIGOTT-SMITH

(13 May 1946 - 7 April 2017)

When Tim Pigott-Smith’s family moved to Stratford-upon-Avon soon after the Royal Shakespeare Company was founded in 1961, young Tim’s future was clearly set in stone by his discovery of Shakespeare. He studied drama at Bristol University, continued his training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and subsequently joined the Bristol Old Vic company from 1969. Essentially a stage actor, he worked in London and New York, but mainly appeared in repertory and regional theatres and with Toby Robertson’s Prospect Theatre Company, eventually forming his own touring theatre company, Compass, for which he was artistic director from 1989 to 1992. His theatre and TV performances covered plays by, among many others, Shakespeare, Eugene O’Neill, Edward Albee and George Bernard Shaw. His last London stage appearance was in Mike Bartlett’s King Charles III, which he took to Broadway and for which he gained Olivier and Tony Award nominations. At the time of his death (from a suspected heart attack) he was about to tour in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, with his actress wife Pamela Miles.

Tim Pigott-Smith was best-known for his television appearance as Ronald Merrick in The Jewel in the Crown, a dramatisation of Paul Scott’s novel on India under the British, for which the actor won a Bafta in 1984. Other notable television appearances include Dr Who, The Glittering Prizes, The Lost Boys, North and South, Bloody Sunday, Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years, I Remember Nelson, The Chief, The Vice, Downton Abbey and latterly Decline and Fall. His first film appearance was in Aces High with Malcolm McDowell in 1976 and he subsequently appeared in Joseph Andrews, Sweet William, Richard’s Things, Clash of the Titans, Escape to Victory, The Remains of the Day, Oliver Stone’s Alexander, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, Quantum of Solace, Gangs of New York, RED 2 and the 2017 remake of Whisky Galore!. Four more of his films are due for release in 2017, including a television adaptation of King Charles III.

Tim Pigott-Smith was a patron of Friendship Works, a charity operating in the London boroughs of Camden and Islington, offering mentoring support for children and young people who have problems growing up in their home and social environment. He also wrote books on India and children’s stories. He was awarded an OBE in the New Year’s Honours List in 2017. His son Tom is a concert violinist.

MICHAEL DARVELL